.
.
.
As often happens when pipe-dreams collide with reality, the California High Speed Train project has just experienced its second major set-back in just the last month. After cost projections for the train-to-nowhere were doubled just a few weeks ago, a new report from the non-partisan Legislative Analyst’s Office found that the high-speed rail plan “does not comply with key provisions of a ballot measure that voters approved,” according to the Los Angeles Times.
The audit found that high speed rail officials “must complete an environmental review and identify a corridor, a usable segment, all sources of committed funds and a schedule for the receipt of financing,” before any of the $9 billion that voters approved in 2008 can be requested, the Times reported.
Of course, none of these major failures were among the selling points when this boondoggle was pitched to voters three years ago. Similarly, no such prognostications of rapidly inflating costs and rapidly deflating benefits are being pitched with a similar ballot box boondoggle, the so-called California Cancer Research Act.
This project, funded by a nearly $1 billion annual tax hike, duplicates existing programs, but still adds a brand new $16 million bureaucracy to California’s already bloated public sector. What’s worse is that this project’s spending continues year after year, regardless of whether the state can afford it or not.
At a time when California is facing record level deficits, doubling down on the out-of-control spending that drove the state into the ground is surely not the way to go. Like working families across the nation, California bureaucrats should learn to live within their means.
With the state flushing billions of dollars down the drain, I’m glad we have bloggers like Ms. Montelogo exposing the farce that is high speed rail. I have missed Brother Gilbert’s insightful stories as far back as I can remember about this boondoggle. I welcome Ms. Montelongo. Fortunately, we have another new poster child for what’s wrong with high speed rail – none other than Orange County Democratic Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez. If you have the 5-10 minutes it takes, give this a listen, it’s an instant classic. And as an added bonus, it’s from John and Ken, Vern’s favorite:
http://www.kfiam640.com/player/?station=KFI-AM&program_name=podcast&program_id=JohnandKen.xml&mid=21670160
For those of you who don’t have the time or, in Vern’s case, the stomach, to listen, I’ll sum up the babblings of Ms. Sanchez. According to her, we need high speed rail because:
1. that tanker truck that burned on the 60 freeway a few days ago – well Ms. Sanchez says it (a) “disintegrated” an entire overpass bridge (no it didn’t); (b) reesulted in people trying to take their kids to school in the morning being in the very same spot at 6:00 pm, on a different freeway (yeah right); and (c) tied up traffic on all of Los Angeles County (no it didn’t). By the way, the new high speed rail has no proposed tracks paralleling the 60 freeway, rendering Ms. Sanchez’s argument both false and ridiculous.
2. small planes flying out of John Wayne airport have to idle, waiting for commercial planes to take off, burning fuel (I am not making this up)
3. Orange County residents will have to drive to LA because John Wayne can’t provide the needed air traffic (I have no idea why this means we need HSR, it sounds like we need a bigger John Wayne – like they just opened recently)
4. weather delays in San Francsico and fog in Sacramento delay flights
5. any time we have a crash on the Grapevine, it closes the 5 freeway (I seriously doubt that)
6. I couldn’t take her shrill voice any longer, but suffice it to say that she didn’t do advocates of HSR any favors with her irrelevant and barely coherent comments.
Here’s hoping we can finally end this particular abuse of taxpayer money (I know some voted for it, but that was before estimates ballooned and real costs became evident)
*What is truly amazing is….all the so-called ‘”electeds” think the whole HSR issue is a boondoggle…..”as long as it doesn’t go through my District”!
HSR is coming folks, warts, worms and all. Better duck when they start tearing down
Freeway lanes to put down track.!